RoboCop

Paul Verhoeven's 1987's satire is set in a ruined, near-future, near-lawless Detroit ruled by street thugs and Fortune 500 executives. In a sense, Verhoeven and his writers underestimated that proud city's actual decline. With a Jason Statham remake supposedly in the works (and the guy's deadpan isn't much worse than Peter Weller's), now's not a bad time to revisit the dystopian Motor City. With his circuits on the fritz and his human memories 90 percent erased, poor RoboCop strides the city in heavy steel boots as an agent of justice. That he was created and programmed by corporate heels, he has no idea. The ghost in this machine turns out to be his residual conscience and sense of honor. Out on the street, he's first jeered, then cheered, as he turns his guns against real malefactors who wrote his source code. Maybe a Linux update wouldn't be such a bad thing. Note: toy cap guns will be issued for this "shoot-along" screening. (R) BRIAN MILLER